Waste tank pong

[Ralph]

:-D :-D :-D

 

What a lot of wonderful suggestions. I will work my way through them (although I may give Clive's tank course a miss :-S )

 

Yes I did mean grey tank. Well done Michelle for remembering I asked about the toilet before, I obviously have a lot of loo problems. The Thetford stuff I mentioned is supposed to be for the grey tank, Brian, but I'm not impressed with it.

 

The pong mainly comes up from the shower tray unless I put the plug in. Sinks have traps but I'm not sure about the shower. Also when I empty the waste it's most noticeable, as someone said it smells of rotten eggs. I've had this in all my vans except a Hymer which never seemed to give any trouble. When it happened in my first van I was blaming the dog until I realised he was innocent :-S

 

 

[Derek Uzzell]

For what it's worth, there are two Thetford 'cleaning' products.

 

One's called "Tank Freshener" and is intended for (surprise, surprise!) maintaining the freshness of the waste-water tank. It's doubtful, however, whether it will de-pong a heavily polluted tank.

 

The other Thetford product is called "Cassette Tank Cleaner" and is for removing calcium scale and residues from within a toilet cassette. (Personally, I use citric acid solution for this task.)

 

I've only experienced waste-tank pong once. Eventually I detached the flexible waste-pipes from the tank, plugged them, poured strong bleach down them until the pipes were completely full, then left them for a couple of days. What came out when the bungs were removed was very unpleasant. I then filled the waste tank completely with a bleach solution and left it for a few days. Never had the problem recur.

[Ralph]

Thanks Derek. Yes, I meant the former. Seems to be a bit like diluted washing up liquid.

I'm pretty sure my pong comes from the tank itself but a number of people have mentioned the pipes so I'll work on those as well to be sure.

 

As you mentioned toilet cleaning with citric acid can you expand on that please? I scrubbed mine out pretty thoroughly recently and I was surprised at the extent of the muck inside it. One word of warning on that subject, I got a bit too carried away with the pressure washer and dislodged the "full up" float. It was a very difficult job to refit.

 

 

[michele]

Brian whos a clever cloggs then :D Moi.

 

ralph thanks for clearing that up have you ever noticed how the pipes in all the vans are small ? why do they not use normal household waste pipes normal size? weird Its not as if they wont fit .

half of these problems the draining away being so slow would clear up then.

[Tony Jones]

Some years ago we had a Glendale coachbuilt (on a Bedford 2.3D for those who care - marvellous old wagon).

We had a lingering stink in the bathroom, and eventually (after dismantling bits of plumbing I never knew existed) found that an old facecloth had slipped down behind the tip-up basin!

 

Never had a problem with "Hannibal" (not with plumbing, anyway!). No bathroom, no waste tank, just a sink with a vertical wastepipe, emerging under the van where we put one of those caravan-type black tanks. Ah, the pure simplicity of it all!

 

Tony

 

[puerto]

hi all, all this talk of diiferent cleaning products is all well and good, and im sure most of them will work in the short term. but without a science lesson on wiers and such, the only sure fire way of stopping the smells coming back through any plug hole, be it in your home or motorhome etc is to fit an anti vacume waste trap, an anti vac bottle trap would be the best as it is more compact than a run of the mill u bend or p trap etc. they are only around a fiver at your local plumbers merchant and will do the trick everytime!!!!

 

[Guest Tracker]

Pongy tanks are caused mainly by decomposing food waste and, not surprisingly perhaps, one of the best ways to avoid a pongy tank is to prevent the worst of the food waste from ever entering the tank in the first place.

 

We have for many years now always wiped our plates, pots, cutlery and pans with paper towels to get rid of most of the solids and fat waste prior to washing up.

 

It's a bit messy and time consuming but it does help.

 

The use of very hot (as hot as your hands can stand it) water and enough but not too much wul also seems to help.

 

When draining down the tank, preferably after a few miles on the road to stir it all up, try and stop right over a drain and open the drain tap as soon as you stop - before the solids and sediment have time to sink to the bottom where it quickly solidifies once more.

 

Once again hot water helps and the addition of some bleach (but not too much) if you know when and where you are going to empty the tank before driving helps to emulsify the gunge.

 

The use of a plunger every few days also helps keep the pipes clean and again hot water is better.

 

 

 

 

[Derek Uzzell]

Ralph:

 

The following method for removing deposits from the interior of toilet cassettes is based on Thetford’s own recommendations.

 

Dissolve 100g of citric acid crystals (available from chemist-shops) in 3 litres of warm water. Pour into cassette, replace spout-cap, leave solution in cassette for at least 5 hours (in fact, the longer the better and I usually allow a couple of days) tilting, rotating and inverting the cassette regularly so that the acid solution contacts all interior surfaces especially the upper one.

 

It's quite common for the seals on the two valves fitted to Thetford cassettes to 'scale up' and begin to leak. Some valves are easier than others to remove - depending on the cassette type - but, if you can get them out easily and then soak them in citric acid solution it's likely to return the valves to good health.

 

I agree with earlier advice that waste-traps would be the best solution (prevention is better than cure and all that), but retro-fitting traps is often impossible when the motorhome has a shower or a tip-up wash-basin.

 

 

[Brian Kirby]

michele - 2007-11-07 9:06 AM Brian whos a clever cloggs then :D Moi. ralph thanks for clearing that up have you ever noticed how the pipes in all the vans are small ? why do they not use normal household waste pipes normal size? weird Its not as if they wont fit . half of these problems the draining away being so slow would clear up then.

Michele

OK, I give in.  You win!  Vous etes une clevere clogs.

I've never come across the Thetford tank freshener for the grey water tank, so wondered if Ralph had tried the toilet tank stuff in desperation.  However, I somehow couldn't quite believe he would have.

I have found the Thetford toilet tank cleaner good for the toilet tank scale, and their seal lubricant also seems good.  However, we think the best of all is their general purpose plastic cleaner, which is aimed at the toilet bowl etc, but does a great job on all sorts of other plastic bits as well.

I seem to remember a solution of ordinary washing soda being reccomended somewhere for tank pongs.  Cheap and easy to use, and claimed to be effective.

[michele]

Thank you Grasshopper . :D

Ralph surely it cant be that bad can it ? its a brand new M/Home isnt it ?.

have you tried Zofolra

[Guest JudgeMental]

We only experience the bad smell when emptying the tank, then interior of van smells bad why is this?

 

if you fit a domestic style trap, surely you would have to fit to shower (ours has 2 floor drains) and bathroom sink as well. or else smell will come from there instead?

[Clive]

Did someone mention the old Bedford CF 2.3 motor??

That was our first MH in 1972, Martin Walker built Dormobile.

This engine had a cam belt but it couldn,t make the valves and pistons meet. I tried it! Oh and the rear drive shafts can "walk" out of the diff as its relied in a push fit collars to stop the shafts sliding out of the wheel bearings. That resulted in a ride back home on the back of a flat bed. And when the gearbox is worn you can get it in 1st and reverse at the same time resulting in a tow home by the AA.

 

5 gallons of Ziebart still never stopped it going rusty.

 

Ah, things were simple then wern't they Tony?

 

Nostalgia aint what it used to be!